Refrigerator-car.



P. PORGES REFRIGERATOR CAR. APPLICATION FILED FEB. 18.1914.

1 1M 39. Patented Dec. 11, 1915.

2 SHEETSSHEET I- P'. PORGES. REFRIGERATOR CAR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 1a. 1914.

Patented Dec. M, 1915.

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2 SHEETS-SHEET 2- PHILIPP PORGES, 0F VIENNA, AUSTRIA-HUNGARY.

REFRIGERATOR-CAR.

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Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec... id, Milo,

Application filed February 18, 1914. Serial No. 819,397.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, PHILIPP Ponons, subject of the Emperor of Austria-Hungary, residing at Vienna, Austria-Hungary, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Refrigerator-Cars, and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to letters or figures of reference marked thereon, which form a part of this specification.

This invention relates to refrigerator cars and more especially to the type of cars described in my prior application Ser. No. 777,685 of July 7, 1913. In this priorspecification a car is described the refrigerator arrangement of which consists of a double bottomed storage and cooling chamber or room provided with openings, of an ice tank at each end of said cooling chamber or room and of a conduit or duct arranged between the cooling chamber and each of said ice tanks for the conduction of the air to be cooled. Each of said conduits or ducts is providedwith a shutt ing-off device, for instance with a flap or a damper, adapted to establish communication between the adjacent ice chamber and the cooling chamber or room either by way of a conduit or duct and a fan provided at the upper end of the same, toobtain an artificial ventilation or directly through the openings at the bottom of the cooling chamber, the natural'circulation of air being in this case relied on.

The object of the fan is to cause the warm air of the storage or cooling room to pass over the ice whereby cooling is effected and to further passover a strongly cooled surface in order to obtain deposition of the moisture contained in the cooling air. In arrangement of the kind described, however, the risk isto be run that no cooling action at all can take place if the fan ceases to work.

It is the object of this invention to obviate the difficulty by providing an arrangement in which a natural circulation of air is automatically substituted for the artificial ventilation produced by the fan, in case the fan is stopped or ceases to work; this automatic substitution is brought about by the shutting-off device arranged in the conduit between the cooling room and the ice tank, the said device being adapted to assume in th s case a position in which 'it closes the condult leading to the fan and establishes a d rect communication previously closed between the ice tank and the storage or coolmg room. l

The improved arrangement is shown by way of example in the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1 is a sectional view of one end of the refrigerator car provided with the shutting-off device and with means for automatically operating the same. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the electrical connections.

Referring to Fig. 1 a designates the ice chamber, 6 the storage or cooling chainber or room, 03 the partition wall between the aforementioned chambers or rooms, and 0 the fan for causing the circulation of the air. The storage room 6 is provided with a false bottom 6 having suitable openings 6 and with a false ceiling or cover f likewise provided with openings f. The refrigerating an enters the storage room through the openings 6 in the bottom e and leaves it through the openings f as indicated by the arrows.

To allow alternative use of artificial ventilation by means of the fan and of natural circulation of the air by utilization of the difference in the specific weights or densities of the cool and the warm air, both circula;

tions taking place through the openings 6 and f in the bottom and ceiling of the storage room respectively, the fan 6 is arranged at the upper end. of the ice room and is provided with a sugstion duct or conduit 9 beginning at the lower end of the ice room and is further provided with a pressure pipe or duct 7t for discharging the air underneath the bottom a. An opening is provided with a flap 1) is' furthermore arranged in the par-,

tition wall'near the bottom 6 through which, if the flap happens to be open, the cooled air from the ice room can penetrate into the discharge room without passing the fan.

The flap 1) is under control of a solenoid s, a relay or the like.

If the solenoid s is energized the flap '0 which is arranged toswing around a pivot z, is maintained in its vertical position by means oflthe link j, whereby the opening is is closed. The cooled air flowing from the ice room is thereby exhausted from said room by means of the fan and discharged I underneath the bottom e through the pipe a which then assumes the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1 and frees the opening is, at the same time closing the suction duct g. The cooled air may now penetrate directly from the ice room into the lower part of the storage room while the warm air rises and leaves said room through the openings f, in the cover orv ceiling f and reenters the ice room through the duct m. A natural circulation of the air is thus ob tained, as the air in the ice room is gradually cooled and thereby sinks until it reaches at last the bottom of the ice room and there reenters, the storage rooms through the openin la.

lhefans 0 are each driven by an electric motor 1' (Fig. 2 which is supplied with current from a generator or or astorage battery 0 over the mains c. The generator at is driven from the car axles and when .driven prefer- .ably simultaneously loads the battery 0.

The arrangement may also be such that the generator is exclusively used for loading the battery, this latter thensupplyingthe current for the electric motors 1*. A switch board u is provided which allows to establish or to change the connections required.

If automatic loading of the storage battery takes place one of the wellknown automatic cell switches may be employed in connection with the storage battery. The current strength and thereby the number of revolutions of the electric motors and of the fans coupled therewith may be regulated by means of the adjustable resistance 12,- it is obvious that thereby also the temperature of the storage room is regulated.

The solenoid s for automatically shifting the flap 'v is connected in series with its allotted electric motor thereby remaining ener- 5 gized during the-whole time the armature of the electric motor is supplied with current. The solenoid, when energized, attracts its core 3 and through the medium of link 9' lifts the counterweight and holds the flap '0 in its vertical position. Artificial vent1la-' tion may now take place by means of the fan as previously described. If however the current fails, the storage battery being for instance exhausted, then the core y drops owing to the action of the counterweight t, which now lifts the flap 'v and frees theonening k, at the same time closing the suction pipe of the fan. Thus the natural circulation is automatically substituted for the artificial ventilation.

The refrigerator car may in other respects have any convenient constructlon or may be of the general type described in my aforementioned prior application. Furthermore I do not limit myself to the particular means for causing an alternate natural and artificial circulation, as it is obvious that other shutting-011 devices and other means for controllingv the same may be used without de arting from the essence of my invention.

laims:

1. A refrigerator car comprising a storage chamber, an ice chamber, an air conduit having parallel passages through which said chambers communicate, means to create an artificial circulation of air through said conduit and chambers, and means to establish a natural circulation of air through said chambers.

2. A. refrigerator car comprising a storage chamber, an ice chamber, an air conduit having parallel passages through which said chambers communicate, means to create an artificial circulation of air through said conduit and chambers, means to establish a natural circulation of air through said chambers, and automatically operated mechanism to establish communication between said chambers.

means to close said duct and establish com-- munication between the chambers at their lower ends.

4. A refrigerator car comprising a storage chamber, an ice chamber, a suction duct communicating with the lower end of the latter, a pressure pipe communicating at one end with the suction duct and at its other end with the storage chamber, means to create suction and pressure in said duct and pipe respectively, and means to close said duct and establish communication between the chambers at their lower ends.

5. A refrigerator car comprising a storage chamber, a false perforated bottom in the latter, an ice chamber, a suction duct communicating with the latter at its lower end, a pressure pipe communicating with the suction duct at its upper end and with the storage chamber through the perforated bottom, said duct having an opening. communicating with the storage chamber above said perforated bottom, and means to alternately close the opening and duct.

6. A refrigerator car comprising a storage chamber, an ice chamber, a suction duct communicating with the latter, a pressure ipe connecting the duct and storage chamer, a fan interposed'between said duct and pipe adapted to create 'suction and pressure in the duct. and pipe respectively, said duct having an aperture communicating with the storage "chamber, and a flap arranged in said:

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duct to simultaneously close the latter and open the aperture.

7. A refrigerator car comprising a storage chamber, an ice chamber, a conduit connecting said chambers, an'electrically driven fan adapted to create a suction and pressure in said conduit, said conduit having an opening between its ends through which said chambers are adapted to communicate, a

10 flap adapted tovalternately close the opening and'conduit, a solenoid in the fan circuit for automatically operating the flap.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my invention, I have signed my name in presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

I Josnr RUBRENK, AUGUST FUGGER. 

